1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus such an ink jet facsimile or an ink jet printer, and more particularly, to a device and method for reducing power consumption and protecting an ink jet recording head in an ink jet recording apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
To record an image on a recording medium such as a recording sheet or a film, recording apparatuses of a wire dot type, a thermal transfer type and an ink jet type use an unique recording head. In these recording apparatuses, an ink jet recording apparatus records an image by ejecting ink onto a recording medium. An ink jet recording head used in the ink jet recording apparatus includes a plurality of nozzles each having a fine ejection hole for ejecting ink. Ink within the nozzles is heated by a heating element installed correspondingly at each nozzle and then expanded. The ink which has expanded is ejected to the exterior of the nozzles and fixed onto a recording medium. The ink jet recording apparatus selectively drives the nozzles of the recording head to record an image.
Typically the ink jet recording apparatus uses a driving voltage of 11.75V applied to a head driver and the recording head. Since the driving voltage of 11.75V continues to be supplied to the head driver and the recording head, power is consumed even at an idle state. Furthermore, if a user exchanges the recording head without turning off the ink jet recording apparatus, the recording head may be damaged due to the driving voltage of 11.75V and an electric short between recording head ports.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,115 to Hiroaki Kitazawa entitled Image Recording Method And Apparatus describes an ink jet printer having an image recording method and apparatus for performing stable image recording with a minimum power consumption according to a recording operation wherein ink is discharged onto a recording medium, the recording operation comprising: a power generation step of generating a power on the basis of image data, an accumulating step of accumulating the power generated in the power generation step, a heating step of supplying the accumulated power by the accumulating step to a heater to heat said heater according to the image data, and a discharging step of discharging said ink from a recording head onto said recording medium on the basis of a thermal energy from the heater heated in the heating step.